Back to Search
Start Over
Robust Sub-Monolayers of Co3O4 Nano-Islands: A Highly Transparent Morphology for Efficient Water Oxidation Catalysis.
- Source :
- Advanced Energy Materials; 8/10/2016, Vol. 6 Issue 15, pn/a-N.PAG, 9p
- Publication Year :
- 2016
-
Abstract
- The scalable synthesis of highly transparent and robust sub-monolayers of Co<subscript>3</subscript>O<subscript>4</subscript> nano-islands, which efficiently catalyze water oxidation, is reported. Rapid aerosol deposition of Co<subscript>3</subscript>O<subscript>4</subscript> nanoparticles and thermally induced self-organization lead to an ultra-fine nano-island morphology with more than 94% light transmission at a wavelength of 500 nm. These transparent sub-monolayers demonstrate a remarkable mass-weighted water oxidation activity of 2070-2350 A g<subscript>Co3O4</subscript><superscript>−1</superscript> and per-metal turnover frequency of 0.38-0.62 s<superscript>−1</superscript> at an overpotential of 400 mV in 1 m NaOH aqueous solution. This mixed valent cobalt oxide structure exhibits excellent long-term electrochemical and mechanical stability preserving the initial catalytic activity over more than 12 h of constant current electrolysis and 1000 consecutive voltammetric cycles. The potential of the Co<subscript>3</subscript>O<subscript>4</subscript> nano-islands for photoelectrochemical water splitting has been demonstrated by incorporation of co-catalysts in GaN nanowire photoanodes. The Co<subscript>3</subscript>O<subscript>4</subscript>-GaN photoanodes reveal significantly reduced onset overpotentials, improved photoresponse and photostability compared to the bare GaN ones. These findings provide a highly performing catalyst structure and a scalable synthesis method for the engineering of efficient photoanodes for integrated solar water-splitting cells. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Subjects :
- MONOMOLECULAR films
OXIDATION of water
CATALYSIS
CHEMISTRY
NANOSTRUCTURED materials
Subjects
Details
- Language :
- English
- ISSN :
- 16146832
- Volume :
- 6
- Issue :
- 15
- Database :
- Complementary Index
- Journal :
- Advanced Energy Materials
- Publication Type :
- Academic Journal
- Accession number :
- 117320494
- Full Text :
- https://doi.org/10.1002/aenm.201600697